I'm No Victim
by Kathryin
Summary: A little girl went missing. A hardened killer returned. Possible Carl x Oc
She lay on the grass staring up at the clouds looking peaceful and as though she was without a care in the world. As though she'd somehow managed to live the last two years in this messed up world and escape unscathed. Something about her easy countenance and delicate appearance screamed _Fake_ to Stephen. Maybe that's because as her father he knew it was fake.

The sun had reached the highest point in the sky so it was sometime around noon. The light from the sun lit up the young girl's blonde hair making her look almost angelic but upon closer inspection you could notice dark circles around her brown eyes, eye's that suddenly turned towards Stephen with an intensity that almost took his breath away.

The little girl that once was, his Leia, was gone, and in her place was this stranger he didn't know and wasn't sure he wanted to know.

Everything was fine for the first few months, Stephen knew how to use a gun but wasn't the best at hand-to-hand combat, but somehow they were surviving. Then his wife died and he spent the next few months in a dazed state of mind mourning her. ' _My Ann, my precious Ann, too good for this world.'_ Ann had been bitten protecting Leia, and had succumb to the fever only a few short hours later. After that he lost Leia somewhere along the way- he couldn't remember where exactly as those months he'd spent in a daze since his wife was bit are a period that is difficult to recall.

Around 10 months ago Stephen had made two friends, Jackson and Carter who had helped him snap out of his dazed stupor 9 months ago, and when he'd stumbled across Leia two months ago he had been over the moon, he was awestruck and believed a miracle had occurred. _'You saved me daddy! You saved me. I knew all along you would. I knew!'_ she had said, even though there was no danger in the clearing they had stood in. _'I'll never lose you again.'_ He'd said, and at the time he'd meant those words. He didn't know that he'd soon begin wishing that he had never found Leia.

He began to think that maybe it was a good thing that Ann had died so she didn't have to see that monster that wore their daughter's face.

The first month of Leia's return was fine. He believed her to be a little strange, quiet and reserved hanging back and letting the men deal with the undead, but not fearful or clinging to him like she used to. The other men asked him if she was all there in the head, but he ignored them.

When he tried to speak to her there was no trace of the happy bubbly girl she used to be but there _was_ a dark look in her eyes and she would rarely respond with more than one word, so he stopped trying to speak.

He'll never forget the first moment she truly unnerved him. The group had been attempting to go incognito as they ransacked a convenience store, as there seemed to be only a few walkers and none of the men were very good with knives. Jackson and Carter had gone around the front because there seemed to be more walkers that way and they were better with knives than he was. That left Leia to go around the back with him.

Noticing the dull look in her eye's retreating for a moment as they widened he thought he'd glimpsed something that looked like recognition, in a gentle voice he'd asked, _'what's wrong darlin' you been here before?',_ she barely glanced out of the corner of her eye at him and like usual there had been no reply.

Continuing through the back entrance of the store he'd noticed only one undead, and it hadn't yet noticed them. He had expected Leia to hang back like she usually did but she just stared at this particular undead for about a minute, Stephen attempted to pull her along by the hand but she had instantly yanked her hand from his before lunging forward with a speed an aggression he had not expected from the little girl he had once soothed to sleep with lullabies and tales of princes on white horses.

Leia had stabbed that undead so many times until it's head was just mush and no face remained. He was frozen in shock when she had then turned to him, little hands covered in blood, with speckles of it on her face and _smiled._ The smile was so beautiful because it was _Ann's smile._ She had then proceeded to clean off her blade on the summer dress she wore and walked ahead like nothing had happened.

Stephen had to grip his belt in order to keep his hands still because they were trembling uncontrollably. It was at that moment that he'd realised he was _afraid_ of this little girl and that this little girl wasn't the little girl he'd knew and raised. He still had hopes that she was in there somewhere so he didn't voice his concerns to the others. He would rather they went on believing that she was a little soft in the head than them thinking she was downright psychotic.

The next day he had vowed to keep a closer eye on Leia, but she had seemingly reverted back to her docile cloud watching state. So Stephen tried his best to put the incident to the back of his mind and was doing well this whole month, but a few days ago Stephen had woken up to both of his friends on the floor of Leia's tent, throats slit. ' _Are you mad at me daddy?',_ she had asked. It was at that moment he progressed from being fearful of Leia to downright petrified.

He had pierced their skulls, wrapped them up in her pink tent and disposed of their corpses down a hill. Leia moved into their tent.

Since then he has not been able to look at Leia.

He knew he had to escape her somehow, and he would, as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Until then, he'd try and sleep with one eye open and his hand on the blade of his knife.

 _The next day._

The two abandoned their tents in search of a store. The duo walked together in silence as usual. For Stephen the silence was almost maddening, he was beginning to feel stir crazy, he didn't realise how much he appreciated companionship until it was torn from his arms, glancing sideways he noticed that Leia on the other hand looked almost happy, and he fought to resist a shudder. _'Monsters don't feel happiness, she probably has the emotional capacity of one of the undead.'_

Before long, the two came across a road, that was surrounded by forestry, following the road for a few hours they came across a promising looking find; a small shop, to the side of the road, basically in the middle of nowhere. The small shop looked like it may have some supplies left.

Looking through the window Stephen formulated a plan.

The two entered the store which seemed to be walker free. There was an abundance of stock, at least a quarter of the store had supplies, it really was a jackpot. At the till was the rotten corpse of a man sitting on a seat who had shot himself in the head. 'Sweetie, you go check the back of the shop.' He said, pointing at the stockroom door. Leia immediately went.

Quickly, Stephen grabbed the gun checking for bullets. It had one bullet. 'Yes, oh God, yes!' He didn't care that Leia was only a little girl, barely even a teenager. Both Jackson and Carter had been better at hand-to-hand combat than him and Leia had somehow managed to get the upper hand on them. He wasn't taking any risks.

He heard her coming back and hid the gun behind his back. 'Dad, you know they have canned fudge cake back here, the kind...the kind mom always loved but you hated. I... I miss mom.' Suddenly Leia was sounding like his little girl again. He looked at her dark eyes, not a demon's eyes, _Ann's eye's._ She was tiny, standing below 5ft, in her little pink dress with long tangled hair, she was becoming more like her mother each day, so beautiful, he knew then he couldn't shoot her. 'I miss her too... Go check the back for any more stuff. We'll come back later with a vehicle and fill the whole thing!'

Leia went back to the stock room and with only a moments hesitation Stephen dumped the rotting corpse off the chair and then lifted the chair over to the stock room. He then pulled the door shut and used the chair as a barricade to hold the handle and keep the door shut. Then he waited until the rattling started.

'Dad, I can't get the door open!', the ratting continued, 'Dad?', 'Open the door, fuck!' Leia then began booting the door.

Stephen rubbed his hands over his face and sighed a deep sigh and then left the store without a backward glance. All the while he could hear the sounds of Leia's screams.

 _ **IMPORTANT**_

 _If I get any interest in this story I'll update regularly, just let me know if you're interested in a CarlxOc. If there's no interest I'll change it to a one-shot. Thank you._

 _-Katherine_


End file.
